It's not so bad here
by luis.mendoza15
Summary: After Peridot crash lands to earth she devises a plan to get back to the home world. But what happens when she accidentally starts to stray away from her own plan and let's herself get distracted by the little blue ball we know called earth and all the people on it. (warning Perinaldo in later chapters)
1. Chapter 1

Peridot had finally crash landed back to earth after her first real encounter with the home world traitors who called themselves the "crystal gems".

"Curses!" Peridot yelled in her escape pod, still bound and tied up in the spiked whip that belonged to the gem traitor known simply as amethyst. "I knew I should've brought more muscle power than that orange meathead and that disobedient mirror gem." She cursed to herself as she struggled to undo the tight bonding that still had her restrained.

What was supposed to be a simple mission to rebuild the home world warp pad and then take back control of earth had not only completely failed but also backfired in Peridot's face. Not only did she fail in her mission: she lost her bodyguard, let all the traitors escape, lost her ship, and worst of all she was stuck on a planet she was not familiar with.

"Grrr...errr...Damn it!"Peridot grunted as she struggled to break free from her bindings but to no avail. Finally, after what felt like hours, Peridot finally wiggled her way out of her restraints. "Finally, now to contact the home world and tell them to send in reinforcements." Peridot said out loud as her fingers began to float in mid-air in front of her creating a hexagon like hologram showing various characters and numbers, some unknown to the human race.

"This is Peridot, requesting reinforcements the mission was...a failure." Peridot spoke, the last words said through gridded teeth. Unfortunately for Peridot, it didn't seem as any of her messages to the home world were going through. "OH COME ON!" Peridot screamed, her yells echoing in her damaged space pod, "My signal must have been interfered with somehow when those clogs tried to take control of the ship." Peridot thought to herself. "Maybe if I connect to the pod it could give me a large enough signal boost so I can get off this insect filled planet" she said to herself hoping that she could find away to get off earth and go home.

"Computer boost my transmitter so I can reach the home world." Peridot commanded the broken space pod. Sadly for Peridot, it seemed as luck was not on her side today. "ERROR!,ERROR!, Central computer damaged, immediate repairs are mandatory to carry out such a command." The pod's computer said. "Oh you've got to be kidding me, computer what is the probability that you can repair yourself and carry out the command?" Peridot asked the computer. "ERROR!, damaged to the central computer is beyond repair, requesting immediate replacement." Said the computer "Oh perfect, just perfect, the only place that could possibly have a reliable replacement was on the ship, which if I'm correct has been taken over by the traitors, WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING!" Peridot yelled, starting to let her temper get the better of her.

"Alright, calm down, maybe this planet isn't as worthless as they say, maybe the humans have become more advanced in the last millennia ." Peridot told herself trying to see the positive side of her situation, but to no avail. "Oh who am I trying too fool, I'm stuck on this miserable excuse of a planet." Peridot told herself in a defeated tone. But before Peridot could wallow in anymore self pity she heard a large crashing boom coming from above her. "What in the, Computer open the pod now!" Peridot commanded the computer. After climbing out of the crashed space pod and making her way out of the large crater it had created she started to take notice of her surroundings.

"Hmm, it seems like I've landed in some sort of crop field, how ironic." Peridot said out loud, annoyed by the irony of the situation. "Now, what could have made that odd crashing sound, hmm I suppose the stress of this mission is really starting to get to me." Peridot said, trying to calm herself down. "I should probably make my way to the nearest gem base, perhaps they'll still have some useful tech I could use to-WHAT THE!?" Peridot yelled as her train of thought was cut off by a large dark shadow that zoomed by overhead, casting the land around her in brief darkness.

After focusing on the object in the sky that was casting the shadow, Peridot was appalled when she realized the object crashing towards earth was none other than the ship she had lost not even moments ago. After watching what was once her ship crash land then with seconds of its rough landing explode in a fiery blaze from miles away Peridot found herself absolutely speechless and dumbstruck. After watching the smoke arise from what was left from her ship in the distance for what felt like hours Peridot said out loud in a spiteful tone. "I knew those clogs didn't know what they were doing."

"All right Peridot let's review what just happen." Peridot told herself. "You lost your ship, you crash landed on earth with no way off, then you see the ship you had just lost crashed land only seconds later after you, and then you watched it explode." Peridot said, listing off all the events that had just occurred. "Maybe I could use that last one to my advantage." She thought to herself. "I theorize that the explosion wouldn't have destroyed their gems but could have easily destroyed their bodies or at least damage them enough to where they would need to retreat into their gem, which in turn would give me just enough time to scavenge any parts I'd need to fix the pod or if needed make a new one." Peridot told herself, planning on how she could approach the situation.

After sitting down and thinking out her plan for a few minutes Peridot was able to make a final decision. "All right, I will make my way to the crash site and scavenge all the parts I need before those crystal traitors reemerge from their gems, and then I can get off this un forsaken planet, hopefully there will be no distractions." Peridot exclaimed as she proudly stood back up, convinced that her plan was full proof. "Alright first step of the objective, make it to the crash site...on...foot." Peridot told herself, slowly realizing the very first problem with her plan of escape, physical transportation. Peridot being the type of gem she was, she wasn't very efficient when it came to physical strength and labor. The only reason she could be on par with other gems like Jasper and Lapis was because of her use of robots and of high tech gem technology.

"Oh great, I forgot to factor in the physical labor!" Peridot said annoyed. "Forget it, I'll figure that problem out after I get the parts I need." She told herself, simply tired of being reminded of her constant stream of bad luck. After slowly walking away from the crater where her pod had made impact Peridot made her way out of the large crop field she had originally landed in and found her self on the side of a large highway. Heavily sighing in frustration Peridot reluctantly started to make her way towards beach city like an annoyed rebellious teenager who was just told to take out the trash.

After walking for a good thirty minutes Peridot felt as if she had made little to no progress on getting any closer to the crash sight. Occasionally a car would speed by, most likely one of beach city's residents trying to make their way back home. This did not go unnoticed by Peridot who took note of all the different types of humans that were all using primitive machines as a transportation method. "Such outdated machinery" Peridot scoffed, amused that humans were still using such ancient methods of transportation. But even though Peridot thought all the vehicles passing her by were just some outdated human toys compared to her standard gem tech and the thought of her being forced to use human technology to complete her mission bothered Peridot greatly, she'd be lying if she said having one right then and there wouldn't be useful. Then if on cue, a large red pickup truck that was driving by started to slow down and pull over next to Peridot causing her heart to skip a beat.

"Oh no, does this human know information about me!?""How could it!?" "Could it be one of the crystal gems's human soldiers!?" These were all thoughts that raced threw Peridots head as the driver of the pickup truck came to a complete stop. As the window of the truck rolled down it revealed to peridot it's driver, a large bald male with a handlebar mustache and a blue collared shirt with circles and triangles.

"Hello Miss, do you need a lift back to town?" The man in the pickup truck asked, with kindness in his voice.

"Uh, no I would like to stay on the ground please." Peridot said, unsure on what the human she was talking to meant.

"You must be from out of town." The man said, with a slight chuckle. "Is it your first time visiting beach city?" The man asked Peridot.

"Do you mean the city in that direction?" Peridot asked the man while pointing down the road, unsure if the human was able to tell if she wasn't one of them.

"Well that is the only city in that direction, so yeah." The man said, a little confused on whether on not the apparent teenager he was talking too even knew where she was going.

"Then yes." Peridot said, still unsure on what she should tell the man.

"Well, it's just that I saw you walking and if you want to save a few hours of time I could give you a ride, if you want." The man said, offering to give her a ride to town. As Peridot quickly thought on the pros and cons she came to the conclusion that it be best to take the offer, for one she didn't want to blow her cover and be found out and two she didn't feel like walking the whole way.

"Alright, I'll accept your offer...um..uhh...human?" Peridot told the man realizing she didn't know the human's name.

"Oh, my name is Harold but people call me Mr. smiley." Mr. Smiley said. "May I ask what your name is?" Mr. Smiley asked Peridot.

"Oh, my name...it's...ugh...err." Peridot stuttered, the question catching her off gard.

"Uh, it's ok, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to miss, I know how you kids these days are." Mr. Smiley said, probably thinking that Peridot was just being a shy teen.

"Ok, so how do I get in, do I just-" Peridot started before she was cut off by Smiley who said.

"Oh you can just climb in the back, don't worry I'll drive smooth, I'd let you in the passenger side but there's no room." Mr. Smiley explained.

"Really now, why is that?" Peridot asked as she struggled to make her way onto the bed of the truck.

"Well you see, the whole town had to evacuate because of some hand that was in the sky or something so I just brought all my personal things just incase things didn't go so great and I wouldn't be able to go back for them." Mr. Smiley explained. "Speaking of which, did you see the giant hand in the sky by any chance?" Mr. Smiley asked Peridot, as he started his truck and began to drive back to beach city.

"Uh n-no, I must have missed it." Peridot said, sweat starting to form on her forehead. After driving for a while without saying a word Mr. Smiley tried to make some small talk to make the drive less awkward.

"So miss, are you moving or visiting?" Mr. Smiley asked Peridot, wondering what someone like Peridot was doing in beach city.

"Just visiting, hopefully not for very long." Peridot said, with the last words being whispered so Mr. Smiley wouldn't hear and get suspicious.

"Who are ya visting"? Mr. Smiley asked.

"No one." Peridot responded.

"Hmm, just sight seeing then?" Smiley asked, feeling as his attempt to make small talk had been a bad idea.

"I suppose you could put it that way." Peridot said, starting to get annoyed by all of Mr. Smiley's questions. After an hour or so of non stop driving Mr. Smiley finally made his way back to beach city and after seeing all the broken windows and debris scattered around the city, he couldn't help but worry how bad the damage would affect everybody's business, especially with his fun land. Peridot however did not feel any bit of sympathy or guilt towards the people of beach city.

"Hmm, if those clogs hadn't crash my ship this human town wouldn't have been damaged."She thought to herself.

After navigating around beach city, trying his best to avoid pieces of glass and chunks of Peridot's ship in the street Mr. Smiley finally arrived to the peer, right next to the entrance of Fun land. "Well, there we are, hope you'll enjoy your visit miss." Mr. Smiley said as Peridot began to climb off the bed of the truck.

"I'll try." Peridot said under her breath.

"If you decide to stay in town awhile make sure you come and check out fun land, speaking of which I should make sure nothings broken, anyways have a nice day miss."Mr. Smiley exclaimed as he started to drive off again, most likely to park and check on any damages to his park. As he left Peridot started to question why this human stopped and offered to help her, back on the home world gems didn't offer help to other gems when it came to such simple tasks, it would have been a sign of weakness for both parties. But then there was this human, who didn't even know anything about her not even her name, and he helped her. Peridot quickly just shrugged it off as the human thinking she was one of them and that he wouldn't have helped her otherwise, especially if he knew what she had planned to do to their planet. After a few seconds of looking around Peridot was able to see the smoke coming from the crash site, even with the smoke being almost completely receded from her view, there was just enough for to see where the main chunks of her ship had landed.

"Alright, time to finally get of this planet and back. "Peridot said to herself as she made her way to crash site. Unknown to Peridot she would soon see yet another unforeseen hole in her plan, being that only reason she wouldn't even dare come near beach city would be because she thought the "crystal gems" were out of commission and she could easily walk in and take back whatever she needed. That however was not the case, and Peridot was soon going to find that out.


	2. Chapter 2

As Peridot made her way through beach city to get to the crash site, she decided to take notice of her surroundings. After quickly taking note of the scenery of the simple small human town, Peridot had to admit that even with all the debris and the town dwelling in comparison to any gem home world resort, she found the atmosphere strangely calming. So calming in fact that unknowingly to her She had actually started to slow her pace, most likely to enjoy the calming sound of the ocean's waves hitting the shores not that far away.

"Hmm, a shame that we'll have to reactivate the "kindergarten". Peridot thought to herself as she walked along the board walk in the direction of the temple. "From what the records say this planet is very unique when it came to the diversity of its geography, seems like a huge waste to put a "kindergarten" on this planet, but it's what the diamonds want" thought Peridot as she continued to walk.

Finally after a good fifty minutes of walking through beach city Peridot finally arrived at a large hill which held a lighthouse at the top, although to Peridot it just looked like a large tower. After seeing the lighthouse at the top Peridot remembered when she first landed on earth she noticed on top of the "crystal gem's" temple she could see the very same tower on top.

"Hmm, it seems that the ship crashed right on top of those traitors's base. Peridot thought, taking a moment to savor the fact that the traitors somehow crashed into their own temple. "Good." Was all that Peridot uttered as she started to make her way around the hill to the piles of scrap that was once her ship, relishing in the fact that poetic justice had been served. Even though Peridot knows that she needs all the resources she can get, she wouldn't have minded if the "crystal gems's" temple had been completely destroyed when her ship had crashed. But as Peridot was just about to make her way around the hill to the crystal gems's old relic of temple she stopped as she could hear some humans talking just around the corner. What made stop was that fact that she had heard one of these voices before.

"We were about to go chill in the parking lot and freak out some voice." Said one of the humans

"You should come with." Said another voice, this one sounding more female in tone.

"Oh, but I- I don't have anything against squares, I like all basic shapes." Said another voice, this one belonging to a certain Steven universe. The same Steven universe that helped the crystal gems escape, took over Peridot's ship and crashed it on earth causing her to be stuck with no way off.

"No...no no no, impossible!" Peridot thought to herself as her body tensed up and her heart started to beat at an alarming rate. "The crash should have killed it or at the very least render it's body useless." She told herself as she inched her way closer and closer to get a good look at the conversation without being seen herself. As she peeked over the side of the hill Peridot was shocked to see Steven Universe, the odd apparent half gem that some how had the powers of the legendary warrior Rose quarts, but also three other humans. "Wait if that Steven survived the crash then the crystal gems could have very well also survived." Peridot thought to herself as simultaneously peek her head back behind the hill to again rethink her plan. "Ok, Peridot if you're going to work around this you'll have to wait till it gets darker, y-yes of course, these traitors will probably be counting their blessings and will most likely be resting, giving me time to scavenge any parts I need." She explained to herself. As Peridot was about to finish rethinking her plan she could also hear the conversation between Steven and the three humans finishing as well.

"Aww." Exclaimed the female voice.

"Bummer." Said another deeper voice.

"Well, we'll see you later then." The final voice said. Not knowing what direction the humans where walking Peridot jolted up and hid in a small hole on the side of the hill. Being at tight in closed space there was just enough room for peridot to get in and out. Needless to say it was not at all comfortable, but if the humans where to see her then they'd probably alert the crystal gems and that would most likely be a death sentence for her.

"Grr, I hope those humans pass by quickly, I can barely fit in here and I don't need to be hiding so close to the enemy's base." Peridot told herself, hoping to see the humans walk right by her, unknowingly to Peridot if she had just waited and watched for just a few seconds more she would have saw that the three humans had decided to walk away in the other direction making her little "duck and cover" action completely pointless. "Oh for diamond's sake, I hope I won't have to hide here long." Peridot told herself, not willing to risk getting caught even if that meant staying in that cramped hole, siting still, for several hours, alone. "...I feel as if...it's safe to go out now." Peridot said, tired and annoyed that she had to stay in the hole for so long that the sun went down and the moon was shining in the sky.

"Well at least I can scavenge the parts I need without any problems." Peridot said out loud while dusting herself off. "Now let's see...what we...have to...work...with." Peridot said as she walked around the hill only to see that the crystal gems had completely cleared out the beach of any debris of her ship, only leaving tiny fragments of green in the sand. "You...I...but...I-I just..." Was all Peridot could muster up to say before falling to her knees in utter defeat. "It's its not fair..." Peridot mutter under neath her breath wanting nothing more then to just lay there and cry until everything was ok. But for Peridot she was better then that, she wouldn't be where she was today if she broke down and cried whenever it got hard back on the home world. "No, I'm not being Beaton that easily you crystal traitors." Peridot said quietly while picking herself off the ground. "If you think this will stop me, you clogs are dead wrong." Peridot said very quietly but moving her body as if she were yelling finis at the crystal gems's temple, most likely an act of sudden self confidence mixed with rational thinking, knowing that if she really had yelled out her little speech, it would have gotten her killed. Realizing that she was still in the wide open, right next to the crystal gems's temple, Peridot after recollecting her composure had began to walk back in the direction of the city and began to review her plan step by step, again.

"Alright, let's rethink this again, the "crystal gems" were not affected at all by the crash like I originally thought they were." Peridot internally told herself while walking away from the temple. "And they seem to have been cleaning up all the debris of my ship, most likely to see what makes it tick." Peridot added. "Now even though they are gems cleaning up all the wreckage of a ship that big would still take them more then a few days or so." Which means there still should be pieces of the ship scattered around this small earth town, I did see a few good chunks of it while that human escorted me here." Peridot continued to think, the thought of the humans apparent kindness still itching at the back of Peridot's mind, making her think just, "why?". Nevertheless Peridot concluded that if she were ever going to get the parts she needed she would have to scavenge them, and scavenge them that night, other wise the crystal gems will probably take anything she could find useful and that would leave her stuck on earth, perhaps forever or until they find her and "finish" her off.

After walking back to the base of the hill Peridot's train of thought was cut off by the feeling that someone or something was watching her. After slowly turning her head, out of fear that she had been found by the crystal gems, Peridot was a little relieved, yet still a little paranoid after seeing nothing was behind her. "Hmm, I should really hurry up and scavenge those parts I need quickly if I want to get off this planet." Peridot quietly thought to herself. But as Peridot turned her head back forward, she was shocked to see standing in front of her a large pink beast resembling a lion just sitting there and staring at her. Peridot, already on edge, was shocked to see the large pink beast who just suddenly appeared out of no where and she stumbled back and fell on the ground out of fear. The pink beast however seemed unfazed by Peridot's actions and simply just sat there, staring at Peridot as if it was observing her.

"Aw... Sh-shu, shu, go away you uh...pink, beast thing." Peridot said, unsure on the name of the earth creature that sat in front of her, unmoving. "Go...shu...get out of here." Peridot said to the large pink beast while moving her floating fingers in a brushing motion, like someone would when their trying to get a disobedient pet off a piece of furniture. The large pink lion however just sat there, staring at Peridot emotionlessly, only occasionally blinking every now and then. After a minute or two of just sitting, Peridot grew impatient and decided to just get up from the ground and just walk around the pink beast. "For diamond's sake, if you wont get out of my way I'll simply just move around you." Peridot said, no longer feeling as the pink beast would cause her any kind of harm.

However, as soon as Peridot was about to pass by the beast, the lion made a low but menacing growl, causing Peridot to immediately tense up and stop right then and there. Scared, Peridot tried to slowly walk away backwards from the menacing beast but found that every step she took back from the lion, it took a step forward towards her. "Uh...c-calm down, no need to get upset." Peridot nervously told the lion, scared that the animal would suddenly attack her. As the lion slowly kept approaching Peridot, every hair-raising step it took it did so with the same unnerving blank stair it had before, which caused Peridot to feel on edge. After a few tense minutes of being forcibly backed up, Peridot's confusion and fear on what the lion was going to do was resolved when the lion stopped and began to open its mouth. Peridot, being almost completely terrified, closed her eyes and tensed up her body, in preparation for an attack she was completely certain would kill her. An attack which never came.

Instead of the sounds of a ferocious beast tearing her to shreds, Peridot heard the noise of the creature in front of her yawning, the same way a dog would when tired. After opening her eyes to see the lion again just staring at her Peridot felt a small amount of relief brush over her. However that little bit of relief was quickly destroyed when the lion suddenly roared a mighty roar at Peridot. However as the lion roared it shot out an array of light, phasing right through Peridot and stopping only a few inches behind her and making what looked like a portal. Peridot more confused then afraid at this point, wondered just how in the world did a creature of earth of all places, use what looked like gem magic. Then as she considered all the possible reasons on why it would the realization hit her. The realization that this earth creature must have been connected with the crystal gems and that it must have been opening a portal right to them.

"Oh No!" Peridot shrieked as she tried to get away from the area. But before Peridot could escape the lion had used his head, literally. By just giving her a slight nudging her he had given Peridot the little push she needed to fall threw the portal. After grunting from falling flat on her face Peridot quickly jolted up and took notice of her surroundings, her fear of being teleported right in the hands of the crystal gems being replace with the relief of knowing the fact that she was only at the top of the hill, right next to the light house. "Wait, why would that creature send me here?" Peridot questioned, confused on why it sent just a few yards away. "It's obviously working with the crystal gems so why didn't it just send me to them?" She asked herself as she looked back at the pink beast that was still sitting at the bottom of the hill.

"Maybe I can sneak by that thing and get back to collecting the parts I need." Peridot thought to herself. But as Peridot was thinking of a way to out smart the beast and get away, as if it could read her mind, the pink lion started to make his way toward Peridot, faster and faster it made the distance between them shorter and shorter. Taking notice of this Peridot frantically looked around for a place to hide, noticing that the lighthouse behind her had a door Peridot thought that her best chance of getting away from the beast would be to hide in there. Quickly she opened the door and bolted into the building then locked the door behind her. After waiting for the pink lion to come bursting through the door, Peridot felt a huge amount of relief when nothing seemed to happen. "All right, that thing is most likely just waiting outside for me, there must be another way out of here." Peridot thought to herself while taking a look around the small shack like building she found herself in. After seeing a flight of stairs and noticing no other doors, Peridot decided that her best shot was to see what she could find to help her at the top of those stair.

As She slowly ascended the stair case, Peridot felt a feeling of uncertainty when she started to hear noises at the top of the stairs. "What could possibly be hiding in here?" Peridot thought to herself. As she finally reached the top of the stairs, she took notice of the large room around her. Posters, notes, and equations scattered all around the walls and chalk boards. "Gosh, these humans are so disorganized." Peridot scuffed to herself as she walked by one of the boards. "Maybe if they started to... Wait what is this." Peridot said, taking notice of the content of one of the boards in particular. "Polymorphic sentient rocks", "Hollow out the earth", "They'll take any form", were some of the things written on the board that caused Peridot to take notice. The one that stood out the most to her though was the one title "the great diamond authority". "Diamond authority, who ever made this must know what's going on on the home world and it's connection with earth." Peridot told herself, thinking on what this meant for her and her mission."Hmmm, maybe I can use this to my advantage." Peridot told herself. "Maybe if I find who ever made this I could use them to, GAH" was all Peridot could say before she felt something struck her on the back of the head causing her to feel disoriented and fall to the ground.

"So you finally decided to show yourself." Said a voice Peridot had never heard before. "You think you can come to my planet and take it over so easily, well think again!" The voice said Before Peridot fell into a state of complete unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3

As Peridot slowly awoke from unconsciousness, she found herself with a splitting headache and to see that she was in almost complete darkness, the moon light shining threw the large of the lighthouse windows being the only thing illuminating the room. When Peridot tried to pick herself up she realized that she was completely tide up and bound to a chair, barely able to move. Even her fingers were taped down to the chair. At the realization to this Peridot, oddly enough didn't have any feelings of fear, but rather feelings of annoyance, due to the fact that this would be the second time that she was captured and tide up. When Peridot tried to let out a frustrated breath she noticed that there was a line of duct tape covering her mouth which muffled any sounds she tried to make. "For the love of diamond, could this get any worse?" Peridot asked herself internally, unaware on what was about to happen. Suddenly a bright light flashed in front of her, causing her to flinch back in an attempt to try and shield her eyes from the blinding light.

"Well, well, looks like you finally decided to show yourself." Said a voice that Peridot was not familiar with, causing her to feel even more on edge then she already was. "You know, for an advanced alien race, walking into my base of operation alone and with no weapons, was pretty stupid if you were trying to abduct me." The voice mockingly told Peridot in a intimidating tone. Too Peridot, whoever this was sounded like they had been expecting her for a while.

"Wait what, what are you talking about?" Is what Peridot meant to say rather then the small collection of confusing muffles that came out due to the fact that there was still duct tape covering her mouth.

"Huh, just what was that supposed to mea-Oh wait." The voice said, just now realizing why you can't really interrogate somebody with duct tape covering their mouth. "Here let me get that for you." The voice said, with a slight embarrassed chuckle, realizing their little mistake. Since Peridot was still being bombarded with the bright light shining on her face, she wasn't focusing on the the hand that had suddenly been placed on her face, and without warning quickly ripped off the peace of duct tape that was covering her mouth.

"OUCH!" Peridot shirked as she yelped back in her chair, the pain from having the duct tape removed so quickly and without warning being an unwelcome'd surprise to her.

"Ha-ha, sorry about that." The voice said, shyly apologizing for the little miss hap. "Now where were we, ah yes, what are you doing on earth and why where you sneaking around my fortress!?" The voice said, demanding to know why Peridot was on earth and why she was going threw his stuff.

"Wh-what do you mean, uh I didn't do anything wrong please just let me go." Peridot said, trying to see if she could convince her captor that she was just another human who just walked in on his little hide out on accident.

"Nice try you other worldly home invader, but I know you're one of the gems." The voice said, proving that they already knew Peridot was a gem from outer space and that she was just trying to bluff her way out of her predicament.

"What!? But how could you possibly know that!?" Peridot said, shocked that a human could so easily deduce her outer world origin.

"You do know that everybody can see the green rock on your forehead, right?" The voice asked, curious to know if Peridot thought that people couldn't see the gem that was right in the middle of her forehead. As the realization hit Peridot on how easy it would have been for a human to look at her, see her gem, and alert the crystal gems on her presence, she felt a large blow to her own ego, do to the fact that she saw herself as one of the smartest gems on the home world and yet she still made the most idiotic and reckless mistake someone in her situation could possibly make. With a sigh of defeat, Peridot decided that she might as well just answer whatever questions her captor asked of her, hoping that if she answered all their questions they'd might let her go and she'd still be able to scavenge parts for her ship and go home.

"All right, you got me, what is it that you want?" Peridot said with her head down, sounding defeated.

"I just wanna ask you some questions and recorded them for my blog." The voice said, their enthusiasm rising when they mentioned their only blog.

"Blog?" Peridot asked, unsure on what her captor was talking about.

"YEAH MY BLOG! Once people see that I got a real life alien on my blog, everybody will start to watch it." The voice said, a little more excited then most people would be about a online blog.

"Everybody? Even the crystal gems?" Peridot asked with noticeable fear and worry in voice.

"Maybe, why, what's the problem if they do?" The voice asked, a little curious when they noticed the tone change in Peridot's voice when they mentioned the crystal gems.

"Pl-please, don't let them know I'm here, please I'm begging you!" Peridot frantically said, worried that who ever was holding her captive was going to indirectly hand her over to the crystal gems.

"Wait, but you're a gem too, why on earth would you be worried if they new you were in town?" The voice asked, wondering just what could get the green alien so worked up.

"If they find out I'm here, they'll kill me!" Peridot said, pleading with her captor to not let the crystal gems know that she was on earth.

"What!? Why!?" The voice asked, no doubt confused on why the crystal gems would kill one of their own kind.

"Because that's what they do!" Peridot bluntly replied. "They're traitors from the home world, that's what they do, they're even the reason my ship crashed." Peridot said, explaining on why the crystal gems knowing where she was would be a death sentence.

"Wait what!?" The voice said, with concern in his voice, so much in fact that he turned off the light that was shining in Peridots face to reveal a simple human male with blond curly hair and square glasses looking at Peridot with a worried expression. "Wh-what else did they do? Did they try to do something to the earth?" The human frantically asked, hoping to get answers. With the idea that she could use the human to help her, Peridot suddenly thought of a plan to get her out of her restraints and back on track to getting off of earth.

"Y-yes it's called a "kindergarten" the crystal gems were going to use it to destroy the earth." Peridot lied. "But before they could reactivated it some other gems and I came to earth to make sure they couldn't hurt anyone anymore." She continued switching the roles of good and evil to make her story sound convincing. "We had managed to capture them and throw them on my ship, but they escaped, took it over and crashed it on to earth, probably killed the other gems I was with too." She added, only saying that last part for pity so the human would think the crystal gems were cold blooded monsters. And lucky for her, the human was buying every bit of the fake sob story.

"I-I can't believe it." The human said shamefully as he put his hands to his face in a horrid realization. "This whole time I thought the crystal gems were the good guys, but this...this changes everything." He added.

"I know it might sound hard to believe, but trust me it's all true. Peridot said, trying to assure that the human believed every word.

"But how do we stop them? I mean, there's gotta be a way to beat them right?" The human asked, desperately hoping for a good answer. Peridot was rejoiced at the fact that she was able to fool the human into believing her story, since she fooled him she could easily use him to her advantage.

"I'm sorry to say but there is probably no way you or I could beat them, these gems are too powerful for just one gem to take on let alone one human." peridot explained. "The only hope that we have at stopping them would be if I could repair my space pod and get back to the gem home world, once there I could tell everybody there what is happing and return with reinforcements." She explained. "Those gems may be strong, but they couldn't possibly take out a small army of home world soldiers." She finished.

"So, what your saying is that the crystal gems are actual evil and are bent on destroying the world and the only way to save the earth from the crystal gems is to help you fix your ship so you can go home and get reinforcements?" The human asked, trying to clarify what exactly Peridot was saying.

"Needless to say in layton terms, yes." Peridot replied, for some reason deciding to be snarky with her vocabulary.

"But wait, how do I know I can trust you?" The human said, the doubt in his voice giving the impression that he wasn't a hundred percent sold on Peridot story.

"Well can you trust the crystal gems anymore then you can trust me?" Peridot quickly replied, not actually knowing what terms the human and the crystal gems were on, but noticing how the human seemed so believing and concerned when she told him that they were evil, that she took a shot in the dark, hoping that the human would be on her side.

"My gosh, you're right, I don't trust the crystal gems." The human blatantly said out loud. "I mean yeah they've "saved" the city a few times, but that all could have been a ruse to get everybody to think that they were on our side, it all makes sense." The people that the human race would never expect to be a threat, would be its protectors, and to think, that there was a time where I fell for the old, "we are earth's protectors" nonsense." The human said, sounding as if he had just "stepped into the light". "Well not anymore, from this day on I, "RONALDO FRYMAN" will do everything in my power to stop them from destroying my planet, no matter what the cost!" The human, known as Ronaldo said out loud.

"That's great to hear, but could you please untie me so we could get started on fixing my pod?" Peridot said, happy that she found someone to help her scavenge, but still annoyed that she was still tied up at this point.

"O-oh sorry, forgot about that." Ronaldo said, embarrassed that he was getting a little carried away with himself. "So...uh...what's your name by the way, if you don't mind me asking." Ronaldo asked as he began to undo Peridot's restraints. "Oowww, since this mission will probably be a stealth mission we could use code names, I'll use the code name "blogger", I think it fits me well, what about you?" Ronaldo added as he tried to make small talk.

" uh...my name is "Peridot" and I think I'll just use "Peridot as my code name thank you very much." Peridot said, a little unsure on what the human was talking about.

"Oh...ok that's fine." Ronaldo said, a little embarrassed at himself when he noticed how goofy the question sounded. After a minutes of untying knots and removing duct tape, Ronaldo finally freed Peridot form her restrains. "Whoa, done, so now what do from here?" He asked waiting for the next step in Peridot's plan to stop the crystal gems and save the earth.

"Now we just have to scavenge some parts from the wreckage of my ship, if we're lucky we'll find the parts I need to fix my pod and I can go home and report this within a day or two." Peridot said as she stood up from the chair. "And if we're really lucky the crystal gems haven't all ready clean the streets clean of any useful parts." Peridot, thought to herself, making her confidence go down a little in scale. " Alright Ronaldo, I need you to go into town and grab anything that looks like a piece of debris, then I need you to-" Peridot began to say before getting distracted by the large green light illuminating in the sky like a firework.

"Is that a fire work? Ronaldo asked confused. "Who would be lighting fire works at this time of year?" He asked still unsure on what was going on.

"Oh no." Peridot muttered under neath her breath. "No No No, who could have found my pod!?" She said, frantically and worried, as she ran up to the glass to get a better look at the signal flair, hoping that it was just a coincidence, but sure enough a coincidence wasn't the case here. Before she had much time to react, Peridot felt a pair of hands grab her and pull her down to the floor. "What are you do-" was all Peridot could mutter before she felt Ronaldo's hand cover her mouth.

"Shush!" Was the only thing Ronaldo said, as he used his other hand to point out the window in the direction of three distinct figures in the air. Sure enough when Peridot focused on the three figures she could definitely tell that it was the three crystal gems, most likely on their way to find her pod and destroy it. With the knowledge that the crystal gems were surely going to destroy her only means of getting off earth, Peridot felt an overwhelming sense of dread rush over her. "Hey, sorry about that. I didn't want the gems seeing you through the window, so that's why I had to pull you done without telling you." He explained. "Are you ok?" Ronaldo asked as he reached a hand out to help Peridot on her feet.

"N-no, I'm not, that flair was from my space pod." Peridot said, with saddens in her voice as she took his hand to get up. "It looks like the crystal gems are on their way to destroy it right now, so I'm not ok. She explained. "Without my pod or the parts I need, I'll never get off earth." Peridot said as she fell down to her knees, resting her face in her hands, if you could even call her floating fingers hands, and try'd to cover the tears that were starting to form up in her eyes.

"Hey, maybe you could build a new one." Ronaldo shyly asked, not wanting to make the situation worse.

"To do that I would need a lot of specific parts and I'm pretty sure that they've all ready taken anything worth of value by now." Peridot said with even more saddens and defeat in her voice then before. With hearing that, Ronaldo made his way to the other side of the room and moved a locked chest from underneath a desk and dragged it back to where Peridot was, after grabbing a key from his pocket and unlocking the chest he opened it to reveal different pieces of gem technology salvage from the debris of her ship. Ranging from what looked like chunks of what was once her ships engine to even a few gem stabilizers.

"Would any of these help?" Ronaldo said with a smug grin on his face. Peridot however was shocked to say the least. After wiping a way the very few tears that she was starting to muster up, Peridot finally found the one word she was looking for.

"How?" Peridot said, absolutely flustered.

"When I found out that your ship crashed in town I looked all over the place and scavenged anything that looked really important, then I hurried and locked it away in this chest just in case the crystal gems tried to take anything." Ronaldo said, quickly explaining himself on how he obtained all his little souvenirs. "So, will this work for you?" He asked Peridot, wondering if it was good enough for her.

"Y-yes of course, I mean I might have to resort to using stuff from earth, but yes I can use this, thank you." Peridot said, legitimately thanking Ronaldo for helping her.

"Yes!" Ronaldo yelled. "Don't worry people of earth, you'll be safe soon enough." He said, determined to save his planet from a threat he didn't know existed until tonight.


	4. Chapter 4

As Peridot sat down near a desk to gather her bearings she found herself still in hiding the light house. She would have liked to try and move to another safer location farther away but the fear that the crystal gems could return at any moment and catch her stopped her from even being in the outside view of a window. Needing something to do, out of plane boredom and necessity, Peridot decided to tinker with the gem technology that Ronaldo had so generously provided to make it more appropriate for her situation. After grabbing some items from the chest, Peridot used one her of her fingers as some sort of welding tool and began to modify some of the equipment she had. Although Peridot was generally grateful towards Ronaldo for finding the gem technology, she started to get irritated when she felt Ronaldo's eyes staring at her as she worked.

"Is there something you need?" Peridot asked Ronaldo, turning her head to look back at him.

"Oh uh, sorry it's just... uh what are you doing exactly?" Ronaldo asked, a little embarrassed on how creepy he must've looked

"I'm just tinkering with the technology to make it more appropriate for the situation I find myself in at the moment." Peridot told Ronald, explaining what exactly she was doing.

"Wow cool, do you need a hand with anything? Because I have tools around here...somewhere." Ronaldo asked, trying to make himself useful to his new space companion.

"Uh no, that won't be necessary, I have everything under control here." Peridot told dismissing his offer. "Plus this is highly advanced gem home world technology, I doubt that you'd be able to even comprehend how any of it works." She added, turning her head back to continue her work.

"Oh right." Ronaldo said, realizing Peridot's point. "Are you sure there's nothing I can do to help, the fate of earth is at stake and I want to do everything I can to help." he said determined to at least do something to aid Peridot's plan to "save" the earth from the crystal gems.

"Uh... How about keeping an eye for the crystal gems, that would be very helpful." Peridot said, trying to give the human something productive to do.

"Oh yeah, that seems like a pretty good idea, I should really get on that." Ronaldo said as he got up from his chair and began moving towards the window to survey the area for anything that looked like the crystal gems. After a few minutes of awkward silence, the only sounds being that of the occasional buzzing sounds from Peridots tinkering, Ronaldo tried to break the silence with some small talk. "So uh...Peridot, what's it like back on your home world?" Ronaldo asked, wondering what exactly it was like back on the gem home world.

"Eh, it's all right, it's the most advanced planet technology wise in the galaxy, but it's just not as diverse as a place like earth when it comes to geology." Peridot said not taking her eyes off the peace of gem tech in front of her.

"Alright, what about the people or "gems" what are they like, are they nice?" Ronaldo asked, still keeping a look out for the crystal gems. Hearing this Peridot felt a little uneasy due to the fact that she'd have to pick her next words very carefully.

"Uh... Other gems are usually alright I guess, a lot of them are old meat heads who don't usually see uses in a tactician gem like me but it's fine." Peridot said hoping that would be the end of it.

"Really? Ha, I can relate to that." Ronaldo said with a chuckle, not even noticing the slight uneasiness in Peridot's voice when she answered the question. Hearing that response, Peridot became slightly curios on how this simple human could ever find a way to relate to a gem like her, in anyway, shape, or form.

"Oh really, how so?" Peridot asked, curios on what Ronaldo had to say.

"My dad's always on my case "get back to work", "take out the trash", "stop playing on your phone" it's almost like he thinks that the research I do for my blog is meaningless or something, it's like he thinks that it's a waste of time for me to document what goes on around here. He doesn't know that people that research and document what happens in a society are some of the most important people in that society." Ronaldo explained, mostly complaining about his father like most teenagers do. As Peridot listened to this she was surprised at herself when she realize on how relatable she found Ronaldo's story.

"I completely agree with that statement, I find nothing more stressful then when you're doing a job that is so important that society would probably crumble without it and still get treated with disrespect, it's like, hey, without gems like me, you wouldn't even have that new fancy ship of yours, let alone know how to fly it." Peridot said, recalling the times back on home world where she'd still be treated with disrespect even when helping others with their technology.

"I know right, this one time my dad spilt a cup of water on his computer that had a bunch of important business documents on, it's like hello, it's just water, just take it apart, clean the parts, and just put it back together again, I mean what's so hard about that!? And you're suppose to keep a copy of all your important documents in a safe place, I tell ya, if it wasn't for me, my dad would have lost the restaurant years ago. Ronaldo said, recalling the times he single handily saved the family business.

"Yeah, it's even worse when you're dealing with someone who tries to do everything with blunt force, it's like it's just a glitch in the system, but down the battle axe and just restart the whole thing, some gems are just so barbaric sometimes you know?" Peridot said, thrilled that she had met someone she could relate to in some senses.

"Ah yes, but see Peridot, that's what we have to deal with. A burden we must carry, individuals like us where blessed with the know how on technology but cursed to have to deal with so many ignorant people who don't know a thing about technology and asked for our help, then when you explain what they did wrong, they cast you aside as if you where speaking gibberish. But it is our burden and we must carry it otherwise people won't be able to even help themselves. It is a hard and stressful life but it is our life either way." Ronaldo sternly said. Hearing this Peridot found herself astonished on how much sense Ronaldo was making and how much she agreed with him on his statement. After a few moments of silence Peridot stopped working on her gem technology and turned her head to reply to Ronaldo's little speech.

"I'll have you know Ronaldo, with the stress of losing my ship, being thrown out of orbit, and my mission being almost a complete failure, it is a huge relief to find out that there are other like minded individuals out there, even if they're all the way across the galaxy." Peridot said, with a smile, genuinely happy to know that there was at least someone out there that knows the pain of being "smarter" then everyone around you.

"Oh, thank you Peridot, coming from someone who's from an advanced alien race here to save the earth, hearing that really means a lot." Ronaldo said with a small blush, his already massive ego getting a huge boost from Peridot's kind words. Peridot, not noticing Ronaldo's slight blush, just went back to working on her gem tech, feeling a bit more relaxed then before, it wasn't everyday that Peridot had a conversation with somebody that didn't end up with her getting a headache out of annoyance. Finally after a good ten minutes, Peridot was finally finished with the modifications to her equipment.

"Well, that took longer then expected, but they're finally finished." Peridot exclaimed proudly.

"Wow really, can I see?" Ronaldo said, sounding like an excited child on Christmas morning.

"Observe." Peridot said, as her floating fingers carried a few pairs of what looked to be small little yellow button pins in the shape of a diamond shard.

"They look like normal buttons, what do they do?" Ronaldo asked, unsure on what purpose a few little yellow buttons could have in Peridot's plan to save the world.

"Ah yes, I didn't want to waste too much material making these, so I took the liberty of taking a few pieces off of some of the things around me, hope you don't mind." Peridot said explaining why her gem creation looked so primitive.

"The things around you, what do you mean?" Ronaldo said, looking over to the desk where Peridot had been working, only to see that she had destroy his custom made buttons to make her own."Oh man, my custom made "KEEP BEACH CITY WEIRD" buttons,they're ruined." Ronaldo said, sadden that his custom buttons he made himself had been destroyed.

"Oh come now, it was for the great or good of the earth." Peridot told Ronaldo, trying to cheer him up.

"Well I guess the state of the earth comes first." Ronaldo said, with a gloomy tone in his voice. "So what do these things do anyways." Ronaldo asked, wondering what exactly was the purpose of Peridots little pin buttons.

"Well you see, most gems can sense the energy of other gems and other life forms." Peridot explained. "What I've done here is I've made a few stealth devices, they cover the physical body of gems or others in an invisible force field that masks the energy making the wearer completely invisible to anyone who can normally sense energy."

"Wow, cool, but won't they still be able to just look at you and see that you're not human and, you know, "take you down"." Ronaldo asked, worried that the crystal gems would still easily defeat Peridot and conquer the world.

"Well I...yes." Peridot said in a defeated tone. "Most gems are able to shape ship their body's at will, I am...not most gems. I spent more time playing with my equipment and technology then I did playing with myself. I was never able to fully grasp shape shifting and I've only gotten as far as I have because it's never been needed." She explained

"That was a little weirdly worded but I see what you're saying." Ronaldo awkwardly replied. "But hey, what if you just wore a disguise with the stealth pin?" He suggested.

"Hmm, I presume that could work, but what disguise could I possibly use? I don't suppose you have any just lying around do you?" Peridot asked unsure if Ronaldo's suggestion could work.

"You know what, I think I have the perfect solution." Ronaldo said as he made his way to the other side of the light house and pulled another chest from under another table and began to remove some of its content. "Ah, here they are." He said to himself as he made his way back to where Peridot was sitting. "How about these" he exclaimed, showing in his right hand a black hoodie and in his left a pair of green baggy pants, both looking like they were intended for someone a bit "smaller" then someone like Ronaldo.

"I assume these will fit me but, why exactly do you have these?" Peridot asked taking note on the fact that the clothes he showed her were much too small for Ronaldo's size, therefore giving him no reason to have them.

"Oh...uh these were my mom's, from what I remember she was roughly around your body type and size, give or take." Ronaldo said, his voice going a little uneasy when he mentioned his mom.

"Well if these are your mother's then why are they here, wouldn't she want them with her." Peridot said, not really grasping the big picture.

"Well...uh...my mom left town after her and my dad got a divorce, we keep some of her old clothes in here for storage just in case she comes back for them." Ronaldo said, his body language and the tone of his voice giving Peridot a clear indication that the conversation was making him very uncomfortable.

"Oh...uh...well I'm sorry to hear that...anyways any ideas on where we should move so the crystal gems won't find us as easily." Peridot said, trying to steer the conversation back on track to avoid any uneasiness.

"Well yeah, the crystal gems rarely ever go into town." Ronaldo explained, his body language and tone going back to normal. "I say we could set up shop at my house and just build it there." He suggested.

"Hmm, that sounds like a good idea. We should pack all the gem technology and move there immediately." Peridot said, completely agreeing with Ronaldo's suggestion. Even though the temptation to build her new ship right under neath the crystal gem's noses was great, she decided against it due to the fact she didn't really want to test her luck anymore then she already has been. After packing the precious gem technology in one of Ronaldo's army grade backpacks, Peridot and Ronaldo made their way down hill to beach city. Peridot, now in "disguise" felt a wave of relief when she realized that the pink lion creature had left and was no where to be seen. After 15 minutes of walking, the only sound being their footsteps and the calming sounds of the ocean hitting the shore, Peridot and Ronaldo finally made it to his house.

"Ok, I have a bunch of old metal and stuff in a shed in the backyard so we could just set up there." Ronaldo said as he quietly open the door. "We just need to keep it down because my family's sleeping." He whispered as he tip toed his way through the hallway. Peridot following Ronaldo's lead also whispered.

"I doubt I'll be able to finish in one night, it may take a few days at minimum, but it be best just to start on it now." Peridot quietly told Ronaldo.

"All right." Replied Ronaldo.

"Start on what?" Said a loud voice that didn't belong to Ronaldo or Peridot. Peridot never hearing this voice, jolted up out of her little "stealth" mode out of fear, Ronaldo however, knowing this voice simply turned around with an defeated look on his face.

"Oh hey dad...sorry I missed curfew, I guess I just lost track of time. Ronaldo said shyly to his father Mr. Fryman, from the looks of it it just been woken up.

"Son, I thought I told you, if you don't come home by 10 o'clock then just sleep at the lighthouse, not going to have you going back-and-forth all night." Mr. Fryman said groggily, and from the looks of it had just woken up.

"I know, I know, but it's really important."Ronaldo said.

"And who's this?" Mr. Fryman asked, referring to Peridot who was still a little spooked and hiding behind Ronaldo, face still mostly covered by her hoodie.

"Oh...uh...My names Peri-" was all Peridot could mutter out before she felt Ronaldo's hand cover her mouth.

"Her names Perry, she's uh...one of my Internet friends from out of town and she's going to be staying with us for a few days." Ronaldo said nervously, trying to cover up Peridots true origins.

"Young lady, is my son paying you anything?" Mr. Fryman asked Peridot. After hearing that all the fear in Peridot was replaced with udder confusion.

"Wh-what?" Peridot asked, not sure on what Mr. Fryman meant. Ronaldo on the other hand, knew exactly what his father was implying.

"DAD! It's not at all like that." Ronaldo told his father, his face becoming red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment.

"Haha, I'm just messing with you son, anyways, it's a pleasure to have you over young lady, make yourself at home." Mr. Fryman said as he made his way back to his bedroom. "Oh also son, you and your little girlfriend better get some sleep, we have to get up early, I'm gonna need your help fixing up the shop. He said as he closed his bedroom door and before he could get any glares from Ronaldo. After a minute of silence Peridot simply asked.

"What's a Girlfriend?" This question catching Ronaldo off guard he stuttered to find the right words he was looking for.

"Well...er...a girlfriend is when...uh...two people...and ones a girl...and...uh never mind, let's just make sure we have your new alias down so we don't forget it. Ronaldo said, his words sounding a little flustered.

"Hmm, I suppose that an earth identity would be very useful." Peridot said, her attention becoming completely focused on learning her new earth identity. "For my name I guess we're going with, "Perry" now was it? Is there any other information I should remember." Peridot asked, wanting to know everything she needed to fit in.

"All right if anyone ask say that...uh we met on a message board around 3 months ago and...uh you came to visit from out of town because you wanted to...collaborate with me on a project to...um...prove a theory of yours? Yeah, that sounds believable enough, right." Ronaldo told Peridot, unsure if she would agree with him or not on the story he made up.

"Does that sound like something that could happen?" Peridot asked Ronaldo.

"Around here, Something like that sounds really tamed." Ronaldo responded.

"Then it's settled, I'm an Internet friend from out of town who came to visit and wants to collaborate on a project to prove one of my theories." Peridot proudly stated, happy with her new earth alias. "So, what should we start building now?" She asked, wanting to start a new her ship as soon as possible.

"Actually." Ronaldo said, in a tired voice. "It's pretty late and my dad is going to need me to help out at the shop, so if you don't want to raise suspicion we can't work on it right now." He said, trying to sound apologetic.

"Ah but...I...er...just...ah fine." Peridot muttered under breath.

"Well I'm gonna get some sleep, do you want me to make you a guess bed or anything?" Ronaldo asked as he walked towards his own room.

"Gems don't sleep." Peridot replied as she followed Ronaldo into his room.

"Seriously? That's honestly the weirdest thing I've heard, and I know weird." Ronaldo told Peridot as they entered his room. As Peridot entered Ronaldo's room she took notice on how his room resemble the light house, reason being posters and charts covering the walls each promoting a foolish conspiracy or some cartoon character Peridot had never seen before. What took her especially by surprise was the fact that the room was much more organized then she had expected. Keep in mind it was still messy mind you but Peridot could just look at the room and notice that he had some sort of organized system.

"Here, since you can't sleep I figured while you wait you could learn a little bit more about earth culture. Ronaldo said as he handed her a laptop.

"Ah, good idea, it would be nice to have some information just incase." Peridot said as she reached for the laptop. But before she could grab it Ronaldo pulled back and opened it then began to type on it with a worried expression, as if he had forgotten something. "Wait, what are you doing?" Peridot asked.

"Oh nothing, just clearing my history." Ronaldo said with a nervous look on his face.

"Why would you need to do that?" Peridot asked unsure on why Ronaldo would do that.

"It uh... Makes the computer run faster, wouldn't want you to get stuck with slow internet." Ronaldo lied.

"Oh, well thank, that's kind of you." Peridot said, believing him.

"There now you can just surf the web and get all the knowledge you want, also here's some head phones, you can use them to listen to the audio and not wake anyone in the house up." Ronaldo told Peridot as he handed her the laptop.

"Thank you, hope it's not slow anymore" Peridot said as she sat down beside Ronaldo's bed and began typing.

"Well, good night Peridot." Ronaldo said as he got into his bed and started to dose off.

"Oh uh, good night Ronaldo?" Peridot replied back, not completely sure what the phrase meant. After a few minutes had passed and she was sure Ronaldo was asleep, Peridot quickly began typing on the laptop, one of the first questions she wanted to know was-

"What's a Girlfriend?"


	5. Chapter 5

Girl·friend noun,

A regular female companion with whom a person has a romantic or sexual relationship.

"Oh...that's a girlfriend" Peridot thought to herself. The idea of a romantic relationship was in no way a foreign concept to her, many gems back on the home world were known to be together in some form or another. On the other hand, a "sexual" relationship was still a relatively new idea to all gems. Before gems discovered planets with normal mammals such as earth, the most intimate things two gems could to one another was fusing, but some research was done on how most beings reproduced, many gems at the time became curious and started to reenact what they saw. Needless to say, all it really did was cause a lot more fusions and prove that even though a gem's body is a magical construct, it reacts the same as humans would react, if shape shifted right.

"If that's what a girlfriend is, why did Ronaldo's father refer to me as his son's girlfriend, I don't think either of us gave the impression that we could have been at all romantically or even, dare I say...sexually attracted to each other." Peridot thought to herself, the mere idea of herself and a human together romantically caused Peridot to blush and become flustered. "Could that even work?" Peridot asked herself, genuinely wanting to know, the blush on her face still very visible. "Gah, why am I even thinking of course it could never work, ones a gem the others a human!" Peridot shouted internally, trying to stop all the taboo thoughts that where going threw her head. "All right Peridot, you can't have the other humans getting the wrong idea of you and Ronaldo, remember you're just a friend from out of town, that's it, strictly platonic." She told herself, trying to keep focused on the task at hand.

"Alright, what is the difference between a friend and a romantic partner?" Peridot asked herself, as she used her floating digits to type away on the laptop. The first thing to show up on screen were the words "friendship vs romance". After clicking it Peridot saw a site that listed the many differences between friendship and romance, or at least what humans consider the difference.

"Ok, let's see what we have here." Peridot said to herself, as she started reading the information on the screen. "Number one, a friend will have your back when your right, a lover will have your back even if you're wrong." Peridot read. As Peridot continued to read the many differences between a friend and lover, she noticed that very often that the line separating the two would blur, causing much confusion. "For diamonds sake, could these humans be anymore convoluted when it comes to showing the difference between two different social positions in their culture?" Peridot complained internally.

As Peridot continued to research the differences she started to somewhat regret never really socializing back on the home world. "I know I would mock all those other gems back on home world for trying to make relationships and not devoting all their time to their work, but I'd be lying if I said that it wouldn't come in handy right now if I had done the same." Peridot quietly told herself with a defeated sigh. "Who knows, maybe after this mission is all over I'll go to home world and maybe start on some sort of social life, maybe even find that special gem." She thought to herself as she stared blankly at the laptop screen, lost in her own thoughts. "Wait, what are you talking about you clod?" Thought Peridot, internally snapping at herself. "You've been on this miserable rock for one day and you're already starting to question your life choices? Come on, you're a gem from the home world, best there is, you can't let these simple minded humans and their psychology make you question yourself." Peridot internally told herself in a desperate attempt to get herself back on track and focus on the mission.

"Ok Peridot, just keep calm, you just have to blend in with the humans for a few days at the most, I mean, it can't be that hard right?" She quietly asked herself out loud, slightly unsure of her own capabilities. "Oh come on, what are you saying Peridot, of course you can pull this off, you're from home world after all." She told herself, reinvigorating herself and giving herself some much needed motivation.

After her little internal monologue was finished Peridot was once again focused on her mission and found herself using Ronaldo's laptop to search up information that she felt would actually be useful, such as how to turn every day household items in to a space engine. Surprisingly, what showed up on screen did not disappoint. From the looks of it Peridot was not the first to research it. After a while of research, learning everything she would possibly need to convert practically any peace of technology on earth into a space ship, she had unknowingly let time fly by. Peridot was so focused on her research that she hadn't even notice the sun was out, signifying the early morning as it illuminated the room from the window. As she was in the middle of reading a large article on space thrusters, Peridot was suddenly pushed out of her train of thought thanks to the out of nowhere beeps that came from Ronaldo's alarm clock.

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" Was the only sound that Peridot had heard in a good five hours. Even with her wearing the headphones Ronaldo had given her, the sudden beeps where just enough to make Peridot yelp back out of shock and cause her floating digits to shoot out like some sort of tiny projectiles and scatter all over the room. Ronaldo, hearing more commotion then the sound of the electronic alarm clock he would normally be able to sleep threw, groggily sat up to see what was going on.

"Uhh...ya...you ok Peridot?" Ronaldo asked, half awake and not totally focused.

"Yes I'm fine, but why is that small box making that sound, is something wrong, is someone breaking in?" Peridot asked with concern in her voice as all her fingers started to float back to both of her wrist.

"Huh? Do you mean my alarm clock? It's supposed to make that noise." Ronaldo told Peridot, slightly confused at first before he remembered that she was from off world and really must have been unfamiliar with earth appliances.

"Why would anyone invent something that makes that noise if there's nothing wrong?" Peridot asked, generally questioning what thought process would be needed for the creation of such a device.

"Well, it makes that sound so you don't sleep in and miss most of the day. What, do they not have anything like this from where you're from?" Ronaldo asked as he turned over and shut off the alarm.

"Gems don't usually sleep and even if we did we wouldn't need a such an unnecessary device to simply wake up." Peridot scuffed. "Anyways back to the topic at hand, I've done the research and I'm fairly certain that I'll be able make a fully functional ship within a few weeks, so I suggest we should get started right away." Peridot explained, her voice sounding more excited when she mentioned starting on her ship.

"Alright!" Ronaldo enthusiastically said as he got up from bed and put on his glasses. "Don't worry planet earth, soon you will no longer have to live in fear of those false gods "the crystal gems"." Ronaldo whispered to himself as he struck a heroic pose. Seeing this, Peridot wanted to comment on how over dramatic he was being, but before she could they both heard a knock on Ronaldo's bedroom door.

"Morning son, you and your girlfriend better be decent because I'm coming in right now." Mr. Fryman said as he opened his son's bedroom, door fully dressed in his normal work clothes. Before he could hear the whole "she's not my girlfriend" banter from his son Mr. Fryman spoke. "Come on son put some fresh clothes on, the glass guys are gonna be at the shop soon and I'm gonna need your help cleaning before they get there."

"But dad, Perry and I need to start on something right now it's really important, can't you do it yourself." Ronaldo told his father, trying to convince him to just do it alone.

"You know what else is really important? The family business, now put on some fresh clothes and come with me." Mr. Fryman told his son, his words now sounding more like a command rather then a request.

"But dad, what...what is Perry going to do all day, it's a two person project, she can't do it alone." Ronaldo pleaded with his father in a desperate attempt to get out of work.

"Son, it will only be a few hours, I'm sure you two little love birds can last that long without each other." Mr. Fryman teased his son. "Maybe if you had helped clean the shop when we came home yesterday instead of going out and picking up green trash off the street I wouldn't need your help." He explained. "But you left me and your poor brother Peedee to do most of the work so it's your turn to help out son, so no complaining. Mr. Fryman told his son, putting his foot down on the subject.

"Ugh...find dad. Ronaldo said in a defeated tone as he made his way to his closet, grabbing a fresh shirt and pair of pants.

"And as for you young lady, you won't have to wait to long, my son and I will probably get done in an hour or two." Mr. Fryman told Peridot, sounding strangely much more charismatic then when he was talking to Ronaldo.

Oh, um...that's fine. Peridot said, trying to hide the frustration of having to wait even longer to work on her ship.

"Oh by the way, are you feeling alright Miss?" Mr. Fryman asked, with concern in his voice. "You look a little green." Mr. Fryman said, taking notice of Peridot's complexion.

"Oh...I...uh." Peridot muttered trying to find a believable explanation.

"Oh! She's just not used to all this water, it's making her a little sea sick, that's all." Ronaldo blurted out.

"Oh ok, no need to worry young lady, while we're out, we'll get you some medicine for that." Mr. Fryman kindly told Peridot with a smile.

"Oh, well thank you." Peridot said, not completely sure why she would need the medicine.

"Alright son, let's get a move on, I want the shop to look at least decent for when the glass guys come." Mr. Fryman said as he walked out of Ronaldo's room and into the hallway. "Also there's some 7up in the fridge in case your stomach starts acting up." He added, referring to Peridot, whom he thought was just some teenager with a mild case of sea sickness.

"So sorry about this Peridot." Ronaldo said with a heavy sigh. "I promise when we get back we will start on your ship, you have my word." He said reassuringly with a smile on his face. All Peridot did in return was smile back.

"Hurry up Ronaldo!" Mr. Fryman yelled from the living room.

"Coming dad!" Ronaldo yelled back as he ran to the living room, fresh clothes in hand.

"I thought I told you to change clothes?" Mr. Fryman told his son, a hint of annoyance visible in his voice.

"Don't worry I'll change at the shop." Ronaldo replied. Now shouldn't we get going, the sooner we get this done, the sooner I can help save the world." Ronaldo said as he made his way out the front door, that last part he tried to keep to himself but to little avail. As Mr. Fryman also began walking outside he calmly and quietly said out loud to himself.

"Son, sometimes I really worry about you, but as long as you're happy, I'm happy." And with that Mr. Fryman closed the door behind him, leaving Peridot to entertainer self for an hour or two until they returned. After a few minutes went by Peridot decided too look around Ronaldo house, no need to stay put in one room.

As she made her way down the hall way Peridot took notice of all the pictures of Ronaldo's family hung up on the wall. One thing that Peridot found that was slightly bugging her is that when she looked at one of the pictures that was titled "The whole family" and saw only three people, Peridot saw Ronaldo, his father, and a small human child who was must likely the younger brother she heard Mr. Fryman mention. The thing that was bugging her is that Peridot remembered that Ronaldo mentioned he had a mother, and it made her wonder why she wouldn't be in the picture, but then Peridot remembered that Ronaldo said something about his mother leaving due to something called a divorce, so she figure that a divorce meant not being in the family anymore.

As she made her way into the living room Peridot noticed that the tv was on and broadcasting some sort of program featuring a number of strange icons, one of which she was all too familiar with.

"I'm so, so, so, sorry!" Said the crying talking apple.

"It's fine!" Said a carton of spilled milk as it began to also cry. As one by one each character began to sob uncontrollably, Peridot noticed that one of the characters completely resembled the icon she had found on the home warp pad months ago.

"What in the world?" Peridot said to herself, completely baffled at what she saw. "Is this what the icon stands for? Why would the crystal gems use something that's just affiliated with needless crying over petty things?" Peridot thought to herself. As she tried to think of a logical reason on how the crystal gems could be connected with something so odd, her train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps right behind her. Quickly, Peridot turned around to see who was sneaking up behind her, only to see the same small human boy from the picture holding a bowl of cereal.

"Uh...hello?" The boy awkwardly said.

"Um...hi." Peridot awkwardly replied back.

"So your that girl that's going to be staying with us for a while, is that right?" The boy asked, sounding somewhat suspicious.

"Uh...yes?" Peridot said, a little unsure on what to say.

"Ok then." The boy calmly said as he made his way past Peridot and sat down on one of the two couches in the living room, eating his cereal as he watched the characters on the TV cry. Not knowing what to do, Peridot decided to sit down on the second couch and tried to make sense of what was being broadcasted in front of her. After seeing an apple fall over and again begin crying, Peridot took notice on how the young boy would laugh and chuckle at the all antics of the talking food, no matter how unethical it seemed.

"Excuse me but, what is going on here exactly?" Peridot asked the young boy.

"Hmm? It's a new episode of "Crying breakfast friends", have you never heard of this show?" The young boy asked as he finished eating a spoon full of cereal.

"Um, no. What is it about?" Peridot asked, wanting to know just exactly was going on in front of her.

"Well you see, the whole show revolves around a group of friends who happen to be a bunch of common breakfast foods and their random adventures. It usually starts off with one of the breakfast friends getting hurt or breaking their brand new toy and they begin to cry." The boy explained. "Most of the time it ends with them all crying together, or just a select few of them crying."

"What's the point of that?" Said a confused Peridot.

"Well, the shows underlying theme is what makes it good." The young boy said, defending the show's weird premise.

"And what underlying theme would that be?" Peridot asked, curious to know how something with such a basic premise could possibly have any underlying themes to notice.

"Well, there are two main messages the show kind of gives off." The young boy said. "The first one is that it's always a good idea to turn to your friends when you're feeling down and need emotional support. The second one is basically saying that it's ok to just let it out and just cry sometimes and that it's not a sign of weakness if you do." Said the young boy as he continue to eat his cereal.

Hearing this, Peridot was slightly taken aback on how the young boy was able to find actual depth and meaning in a cartoon about crying food. As she pondered the over analyzation the young boy spoke up.

"So what's your name again?" The boy asked. Peridot, being caught off guard by the question, stammered to find the answer she had rehearsed.

"Oh...uh...it's...uh Perry." Peridot said with an awkward smile, trying to make her act as believable as she could.

"Oh, ok. Nice too meet you Perry, my names Peedee." He said with a smile.

"The feelings mutual." Peridot responded.

"So, are you like my brother's girlfriend or something?" Peedee asked, wanting to know more on who "Perry" really was.

"WAIT, WHAT!" Peridot asked, going wide eyed when hearing the question. "Oh no no, I'm just a friend from out of town!" Peridot said with an awkward chuckle and smile, the kind of chuckle and smile you'd see on someone who was hiding something. Somehow knowing Peridot wasn't telling the full truth, Peedee pressed on, much to Peridot's dismay.

"Really, are you sure?" Peedee asked Peridot.

"Yes I'm sure, why is everybody just assuming that Ronaldo and I are in a relationship?!" Peridot said crossing her arms all embarrassed.

"I don't know, maybe it's because you two seem like you'd fit the bill." Peedee said shrugging his shoulders.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Peridot asked.

"Well, what do you like to do where you come from?" Peedee asked.

"I'm a technician." Peridot said, making sure that she wouldn't spill any information she shouldn't. "Computers and things of that matter."

"That's kind of what my brother does." Peedee told Peridot.

"Well...uh...That doesn't mean much." Peridot said, a little bit flustered. "I'm not even in a relationship.

"Oh, is it because you're not interested in anyone where you're from?" Peedee asked, really not caring if his questions were making Peridot uncomfortable.

"Well...yes." Peridot replied. "And it's not like anybody from where I'm from would show any interest in a tech geek like me." She said under her breath.

"Well, have you ever the first move?" Peedee asked.

"First move? What does that mean?" Peridot asked, wanting to know exactly what the expression could possibly mean.

"You know, instead of waiting for someone you might like to ask you out, you ask them out." Peedee explained, as he ate another spoon full of cereal.

Peridot, never taking into consideration that all she needed to do to start a relationship with another gem on the home world was just to ask one, found herself taken back a little by the realization. She never really thought she needed a love life, but she'd be lying if she said that she wouldn't think it would be nice. "That could work, but..." Peridot Stammered.

"But what?" Peedee asked, a little unsure on why "Perry" seemed so indifferent.

"What if I don't like being in a relationship." Peridot blurted out. "What if I like being alone with my work more then I do then with being with someone?" She said under her breath, questioning herself for a second time.

"Then don't be in a relationship." Peedee said sternly. "Some people live their whole lives single, there's no shame in it. It's your life, you live it the way you want to." He added, his words sounding as if they were to wise to be said out the mouth of a child. "But if you ask me, I think it's a good idea to always at least try it. You'll never know for sure if you don't try."

"Uh...I'm not so sure, I mean I don't have any experience in that sort of thing." Peridot said with a sigh, slightly convinced that maybe getting a love life isn't a waste of time now that there my be a chance at getting one. Suddenly, an idea popped into Peedee's head.

"Hey I have an idea, you could always ask my brother to pretend to be in a relationship with you, that way you can see if it's right for you or not." Peedee told Peridot.

Wait, what me and Ronaldo? But we're just friends, just good friends, just good strictly platonic friends." Peridot said completely flustered.

"That's great, since you two are such great friends then it shouldn't be a problem for the both of you to just pretend to be dating." Peedee told Peridot, as he finally finished his bowl of cereal.

After a bit of thinking, Peridot came to the conclusion that it couldn't be that bad. What's the worst that could happen, she goes back to the home world with just as much dating experience and an awkward story to tell. And on the plus side she did somewhat have some respect for Ronaldo, even if he was just a human. But that bothered Peridot, Ronaldo was just a human and yet...she respected him. That concept all on its own caused her to ponder why exactly she did.

Was it because he offered to help her make a new ship, maybe it was because he didn't just sell her out to the crystal gems the second they met, or maybe it was even because he had been the first to show her some real respect in along time. Either way, Peridot came to the conclusion that she'd just kill two birds with one stone, she would get Ronaldo to help with the new ship, and she would use him to practice her dating skills.

"Well, I imagine everyone has to start somewhere, I'll ask Ronaldo if he will be willing to participate in being in a practice relationship with me." Peridot told Peedee, apart of her not completely sure if this was even necessary, and another part a little excited to see what would happen.

"Cool, I'm sure my brother would be willing to help out a friend." Peedee replied as he got up to put away his empty bowl with a devious smile on his face. "Ok Peedee, if those dumb romantic comedies taught you anything, it's that I may have just got those two to be in a relationship." He said internally as he reached the kitchen sink. "If this turns out the way it should, Ronaldo's totally going to owe you." He told himself as he rinsed his bowl.

* * *

_**AN: Hey everybody, sorry this took so long, I would have uploaded this yesterday but I slept through the whole day and forgot. Anyways we're at the halfway mark, at least 5 more chapters hope to see all of you there. **_

**_PS: leaving a review really helps, it's always nice too see what you guys have to say._**


	6. Chapter 6

As Ronaldo and his father walked up to their family owned business, they took a second to really inspect the damage that happen to their shop.

"Jeez, this is gonna be a real hassle to clean up ain't it." Mr. Fryman told his son, referring to the piles and piles of broken glass scattered all around the fry shop. "Well son, we better get started, this mess is not going to clean it's self." Mr. Fryman said as he walked into the damaged shop.

"Yeah, yeah dad." Ronaldo said with an annoyed groan.

"Hey, it was worst yesterday, it would have been finished if you had stayed and helped instead of going around town and picking up trash off the ground." Mr. Fryman said scolding his son.

"Hey! It was for science." Ronaldo said defensively.

"And your blog son?" Mr. Fryman asked, a smug grin spread across his face.

"…and my blog." Ronaldo said in a defeated and embarrassed tone.

"Sure it was son." Mr. Fryman said under his breath with a slight chuckle. "Anyways, we better get started or we'll be here all day." Mr. Fryman said as he grabbed two brooms from the corner of the room and tossed one to Ronaldo. Around a good ten minutes of work had gone by before Ronaldo's father broke the ice and began to ask questions.

"So Ronaldo, what's the deal with that girl Perry, are you two dating or what? It's ok, you can tell me." Mr. Fryman asked his son, not caring if whatever he asked made his son uncomfortable.

"Wh-what! N-no, I mean…we're just friends dad, jeez." Ronaldo stuttered, the question catching him off guard.

"Hey now, how many parents would let some stranger that their teenage son just brought over one night, out of the blue, stay at their home, without asking any real questions? I trust you son so I'm not worried that you brought over some psychopath to our house, I'm just saying that since I'm letting them stay as a guest, you could at least tell me honestly what's the relationship between you two." Mr. Fryman explained. "Is she an old friend of yours you don't talk about?, are you both dating?, or are you two just…you know. He added.

"Know what?" Ronaldo asked with a little bit of embarrassment in his voice, not completely sure on what his father was trying to say.

"You know, friends with…."benefits". Mr. Fryman explained, a little unsure if his son was understanding what he was saying. Realizing what his father was trying to say, Ronaldo found himself taken aback.

"Ah! Dad! Jeez, Perry and I haven't even known each other that long and we….I mean-I…uh-just stop asking these questions." Ronaldo said,red in the face. "All you need to know dad is that Perry is a friend from out of town and she's here to collaborate with me on a project that we'll both be working on, alright?" Ronaldo told his father, his words still having very heavy traces of embarrassment in them.

"Alright son if you say so, all I ask is that you use protection, needless to say I don't think you're ready to be a dad and I'm not ready to be a grandpa." Mr. Fryman said to his son in a teasing manner. Ronaldo, only feeling a mixture of anger and embarrassment, stared back at his father bitterly like any teenager would who was being teased by their parents.

"Ha ha dad, really funny." Ronaldo sarcastically said as he crossed his arms in annoyance.

"Ah don't be so mad son, I'm just messing with you, I'm your dad, I'm supposed to tease you about stuff like this." Mr. Fryman said trying to justify himself. "But seriously son, what kind of project will you two be working on?" He asked, genuinely curious on what his son and his maybe maybe not girlfriend would be doing.

"We're uh…"building"something." Ronaldo reluctantly told his father, not wanting to tell him the "truth" in fear that his father would become worried or he'd unintentionally warn the crystal gems.

"Building something eh? Like, for that blog thing you do?" Mr. Fryman asked his son.

"Uh…y-yeah! We're building something for my blog." Ronaldo lied. "It's gonna take us a few days so…yeah." Ronaldo added, hoping his father would believe his lie.

"Well in that case, are you gonna need your old man to help out, I'm pretty good with tools." Mr. Fryman asked with a slight bit of enthusiasm in his voice.

"NO!" Ronaldo shrieked. "Uh…I mean…uh Perry and I were hoping to build it together, alone." He said, not wanting his father involved in this anymore then he had too.

"Alright if you're sure, I won't bother the two of you." Mr. Fryman said understandingly. "I mean I wouldn't want to get in the way of you two love birds bonding now would I." He added in a teasing manor, much to his son's annoyance. But before Ronaldo could reply back to his father's teasing the two of them heard a truck parking outside in the back. "That must be the glass guys, Ronaldo do you mind finishing up here while I go talk to them? Mr. Fryman asked his son.

"Hmm, Sure dad." Ronaldo replied, a hint of annoyance still audible in his voice.

"Ah don't be so mad son, after we're done here I'll give you a few days off so you can hang out with your friend." Mr. Fryman told his son in an attempt to cheer him up. Hearing his fathers offer Ronaldo immediately perked up.

"Really?" Ronaldo asked, unsure if his father was for real.

"Yes really." Mr. Fryman responded, ensuring his son he wasn't bluffing.

"Oh that's great dad, thank you." Ronaldo said cheerfully.

"You're welcome son, now hurry up and clean the rest up while I talk to these guys." Mr. Fryman said as he walked out of the shop threw the back door.

"Yes sir." Ronaldo said as he began cleaning up the last pieces of glass that were still around the shop. As Ronaldo quickly finished the rest of the mess, he took out his phone and began to text someone. As Ronaldo was finishing up typing the text, his father walked in along with two men that were both wearing some generic repair company logo on their shirt.

"Alright son, these are the repair guys, the glass is gonna be pretty heavy so we're gonna need your help carrying it." Mr. Fryman told his son.

"Ok dad." Ronaldo responded as he put his phone back in his pocket. As one of the repair men began unscrewing some bolts that where holding the old shattered glass, Ronaldo, his father, and the other repair man made their way out back to get the brand new pieces of glass. After finding out the exact size of the glass, the three men slowly and carefully started carrying it to the front. Finally after having to walk around the shop extra slowly due to the weight of the glass, they finally were able to install the new glass windows, much to the delight of Mr. Fryman.

"Finally now the shop is back in business, thank you for your help." Mr. Fryman told the two repair men as he handed the both of them a large tip.

"Anytime sir." One of the men said.

"Now if you can excuse us sir, we have to be on our way." The other man said as the two of them got back in their truck and began to drive off, most likely to fix up other shops across beach city.

"Alright son, a deals a deal, you have the next few days off." Mr. Fryman told Ronaldo. "You can go home now, I can work the shop by myself, it's probably gonna be a slow day so tell Peedee he can stay home for the day." He added as he made his way back in the shop to set up.

"Thank you dad, I will." Ronaldo replied to his father as he started to make his way back home to begin construction with on her new ship. As Ronaldo was around half way home, he heard the voice of someone calling his name.

"Yo Ronaldo, wait up!" Said the voice of a short blond girl Ronaldo knew relatively well.

"Oh hey Sadie! What's up." Ronaldo said as he walked up and high-five'd short his friend.

"Eh, Lars and I got the day off due to the big donut needing some more repairs. So that was pretty cool." Sadie explained. "Also I got your text, here's the makeup you asked for. Sadie said as she handed the little makeup container to Ronaldo.

"Oh thank you Sadie, I owe you big time. Ronaldo said gratefully as he stored the makeup in his pocket.

"Hey don't mention it, what are friends for?" Sadie told Ronaldo. "But I would like to know what do you need girl's makeup for? She asked, curious on when someone like Ronaldo would need something like makeup.

"Uh…well I told you in the text, it's for a friend of mine…she really needs it." Ronaldo said shyly.

"Yeah I know, I was just clarifying that you have a girlfriend that needs makeup." Sadie said in a slightly teasing manner.

"Ugh, she's not my girlfriend!" Ronaldo exclaimed. "She's just a friend from out of town that's visiting." Ronaldo tried to explain with a little bit of embarrassment still in his voice. "Is the whole town gonna ask me this freaking question?" He asked himself, annoyed that not only his father was asking this but now his friend Sadie.

"Oh…about that." Sadie quietly muttered under her breath.

"What, what do you mean?" Ronaldo asked Sadie, concern heavily present in his voice.

"Well you know how with beach city being a small town, rumors spread really fast, even if you don't want them too." Sadie tried to explain.

"Sadie, don't beat around the bush, just tell me what you're trying to say." Ronaldo told Sadie, wanting to know what she was trying to tell him.

"Look, don't get angry but, Lars may have seen the text you sent me and may or may not have already started a rumor that you have a girlfriend visiting as a joke." Sadie explained, sounding as if she was trying to apologize for Lars.

"HE WHAT!?" Ronaldo yelled. "Why that scrawny, big eared little, son of a-" Ronaldo mumbled under his breath as he tried to calm down.

"Oh don't worry Ronaldo, he was just joking, besides people would have probably asked you that anyways, no sense of beating up Lars over something inevitable, right?" Sadie told Ronaldo, sounding a little apologetic in her explanation.

"Ugh, I guess." Ronaldo replied back.

"See Ronaldo don't worry about it." Sadie said as she put a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "People may crack a few jokes and give you funny looks, but hey, that's the price you have to pay if you have a friend of the opposite gender. She explained.

"Oh, you mean like you and Lars?" Ronaldo asked with a smug grin, mischievously pointing out that Sadie and Lars probably share that misfortune.

"Uh Sh-Shut up." Sadie said as she gave Ronaldo a playful shove.

"Ha ha, anyways Sadie I gotta be heading home, there's something I have to get started on." Ronaldo said as he started to walk back in the direction of his house.

"Is it something to do with your new girlfriend?" Sadie asked in a teasing manor.

"No, it's a plan of revenge to get back at your boyfriend Lars." Ronaldo replied back. Sadie not having a clever comeback to Ronaldo's comment simply replied with a blushed face and playfully flipping Ronaldo the bird before she started to walk back in the opposite direction. After walking a few more blocks Ronaldo finally made his way back home, already full of excitement, Ronaldo wasted no time opening the front door, but to his slight surprise he saw Peridot, just laying back on the couch staring at the ceiling. Her hoodie still on, she looked as if she was in deep thought, as if she was contemplating something.

"Hey Peridot, you alright?" Ronaldo asked, wondering why Peridot was just on the couch doing nothing.

"Oh Ronaldo! You're back." Peridot said, only realizing Ronaldo was there due to the sound of him shutting the front door. "So um….how was it." Peridot asked, trying to sound as not awkward as possible.

"It wasn't that bad, I got the next few days off so I can help you build your new ship." Ronaldo replied in a whisper, in slight fear that his brother Peedee would over hear their conversation and start asking unwanted questions. "Speaking off which, you know you could have started building without me right?" He asked Peridot, a little unsure why she didn't just start on construction while he was out.

"Huh? Oh…of course, I was just going over different schematics in my head and cross referencing all the ones I know that could work with the materials we have access too." Peridot explained as she stood up from the couch in an attempt to get herself to focus on what's important. "If you have anything made of steel, such as rods I could use that to build a frame of the ship." She added.

"Steel rods huh? Well lucky for us, yours truly has a large stock pile of steel rods in a shed in the backyard." Ronaldo said with a confident smile.

"Really? Why is that?" Peridot asked Ronaldo, curious on why he would have a stock pile on hand.

"I…uh wanted build a ship of my own but my dad said if I did I'd get grounded big time." Ronaldo said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Well then in that case, let's be sure to be discrete when building." Peridot said with a slight smirk, finding it somewhat amusing on how Ronaldo was constantly being told what he can and can't do by his father. "So, shall we get started?" Peridot asked.

"Of course, I was waiting for you to start, let's go!" Ronaldo excitedly said as he quickly ran to the door which led to his backyard with Peridot slowly following behind. "Well, here they are." Ronaldo said as he opened up the shed which contained the first batch of materials they needed. "So uh…this good?" Ronaldo asked, not completely sure if what he had was what Peridot needed. After Peridot got up close and examined one of the rods she responded with a simple.

"This could work."

"Really? awesome!" Ronaldo gleefully exclaimed as a feeling of confidence and self worth rushed threw him. "Well in that case let me grab all these so we can start building that frame." Ronaldo said as he went to grab a pile of the steel rods before he was stopped by Peridot.

"No need, I can handle that." Peridot said as she used her hand to create some sort of green tractor beam which she used to carry the entire pile of steel rods right before Ronaldo's eyes.

"Holy cow! I didn't know you could do that!" Ronaldo exclaimed, completely taken aback and amazed by Peridot's abilities. Peridot however, looked as if she was concentrating her hardest to move all the steel rods from the shed to the backyard. After moving them to the center of the backyard, Peridot's beam of green energy that was holding the rods up started to shake until the point Peridot unceremoniously dropped them out of exhaustion.

"Grrr, dame it!" Peridot cursed out loud, frustrated that she had carelessly drop the rods.

"Wow, Peridot is everything alright?" Ronaldo frantically asked, concerned on why Peridot just dropped the rods and started cursing.

"It's…it's nothing I just…didn't think the rods would be so difficult to move, that's all." Peridot said in a mellow tone, her voice giving the impression that there was more to it then that.

"Are you sure?" Ronaldo asked with sincerity in his voice, generally wanting to know if his green space companion was alright.

"Y-yes, everything's fine." Peridot lied. "What do you say we finally start building this." Peridot asked Ronaldo, trying to sound as enthusiastic as she could so Ronaldo would stop asking if she was ok. Luckily for Peridot as soon as he was ask that question Ronaldo's face went from concerned and genuine to thrilled and excited. Noticing the look on his face was a yes, Peridot decided to show him the blueprints. "Alright Ronaldo, we seem to have just enough steel rods for the frame of the ship, so I'm going to need you to hold the pieces in place while I wield them together." Peridot explained as she used her floating fingers to create a screen which showed the frame of the ship that she planned to have built and showed it to Ronaldo.

"Whoa." Ronaldo said in an amazement. "You just gotta show me all the cool gem stuff you can do before you go." He said as he started to pick up a few rods and began holding them in place for Peridot."

"Yeah, I'll be sure to remember to do that." Peridot said sarcastically as she used her other hand to create a sort of wielding tool and began wielding the rods together as Ronaldo held them in place. After an hour passed and the two of them had finished two thirds of the frame, Peridot thought it was time to ask Ronaldo the question that was scratching at the back of her mind.

"So uh…Ronaldo, you would consider the two of us friends, right?" Peridot timidly asked as she stopped her work, a little unsure on how she was going to go about asking the following question.

"Of course Peridot." Ronaldo said reassuringly. "We are both tech experts, looked on by our peers as outcast when in reality without people like us our societies would crumble into nothing but pure anarchy." Ronaldo said, sounding as if he had been waiting to recite that little speech of his for awhile. While normally Peridot would just agree with Ronaldo's lecture on how nerds like them are the most important kind of people, she was too pressed on knowing if he'd say yes to helping her with a little "experiment".

"Yes, and friends help friends when they need it." Peridot said, trying not to sound awkward. "Like how you are helping me build a ship so I can get back to home world." She added, not really finding the right words to explain herself.

"And to save the earth from the crystal gems." Ronaldo enthusiastically cheered, unintentionally reminding Peridot that he wasn't just helping her out of the kindness of his heart but rather the fact that because of her he was under the false impression that the crystal gems were a threat to earth.

"And I'm sure that the earth will appreciate your contributions to helping me get back home once this is all over, it's just that I need you to help me with something else as well." Peridot said, a little unsure if she was over stepping her boundaries and was asking too much.

"Geez Peridot, I'm already helping you build a space ship, what more could you possibly need?" Ronaldo said in a jokey manner. "In all seriousness though, of course Peridot, anything for a friend." Ronaldo said with a reassuring smile, giving Peridot the sign that he was willing to help her with whatever she needed. "So what else is it that you need help with?" Ronaldo asked, eager to lend a hand.

"Well, it's just that I've recently realized that I'm not exactly the happiest I could be, socially I'm mean. And I think I would like to change that." Peridot sheepishly tried to explain. Ronaldo, having an uneasy feeling in his stomach as Peridot spoke, due to the fact that he felt he knew where the conversation was going, tensed up a bit. "So I've come to the conclusion that what I could do to fix that is getting into a relationship, you know…umm find someone." Peridot said with a stutter on that last part. As she finished her sentence Peridot found her face turning a slight darker shade of green and her eyes not being able to make contact with Ronaldo's ", much to her embarrassment. Ronaldo somewhat knowing Peridot was going to ask him something like that she started talking about happiness, still found himself completely frozen in place and nearly unable to speak a word.

"Uh ha ha really now? Why would you need someone like me to help with that?" Ronaldo stammered, barely able to speak without completely freaking out.

"Well…uh it's just that I'm not a 100% sure that I would want to be in a relationship, so I want to know if you be been in…um….a "pretend relationship" with me so I know what I'm getting myself into with romance." Peridot said, still green in the face. "So…uh…would you?" She asked, a whole lot of uncertainty and fear present in her voice. After Ronaldo had registered what Peridot had said he felt a wave of relief wash over him. When he had noticed how attractive, smart, and down right amazing Peridot was, let alone the fact that she was sent to earth to "save" it from the crystal gems, the thought of a romance with her had popped in his mind a few times threw out the small window of time he knew her. Although whenever that thought popped in his head he quickly tried to ignore it, mainly due to the fact that he felt an attractive alien from outer space falling in love with a nerd like him from earth was just something that only happened in movies and books and would never happen in real life.

And as an extra incentive, he also thought that earth's fate was on the line and they were building the ship to get her back home and to get reinforcements, it would be down right idiotic to get distracted with something like romance. However this would only be a "pretend romance", completely and utterly different. The minute things got weird, they could just stop and get back to focusing only on the ship. Plus, who's to say that after the crystal gems are taken care of and the earth is safe, their little "pretend romance" wouldn't turn into a "real romance". Seeing more positives then negatives, Ronaldo felt a surge of confidence rush threw him.

"Uh s-sure, I'd love too, I'm mean not real love but uh…you know what I mean." Ronaldo said with a mixture of pure confidence and pure teenage male awkwardness.

"R-really? Th-that's great." Peridot said with a small smile and large blush, a little surprised that Ronaldo actually said yes. "So um…what now?" She asked, completely unsure on where to go from here.

"Well, I guess we can just finish this part of the ship and then do stuff that people in a relationship would do, and we just do that until we're finished, sound good to you?" Ronaldo asked, excited and yet still a little flustered.

"That sounds...nice."Peridot said with a huge blush still on her face. Although oddly enough this didn't bother Peridot like it normally would, she just didn't care. For the first time since she been on earth she isn't worried about her mission, if the crystal gems find her, or even if she's disappointing yellow diamond. For the first time in along time, she just doesn't care about that stuff at the moment. right now she only cares about her and her needs.

* * *

_**AN: Hey guys back with another chapter sorry for the wait. Anyways I just realized I'm going to past my goal with this fic of 20,000 words and probably will go to 25,000+ to 30,000+ which means more fan fic for you guys to read lol. Anyways School has just started for me so if there is an even longer delay between chapters for this story than normal blame the school system. Anyways **_**_Remember to favorite and Review if you can especially Review, it really helps me out more then you think. _**


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